I was playing Yakuza 5 Remastered recently and came upon a substory (the Yakuza version of side-quests) where the character I was playing had to perform several impromptu comedy scenes. The comedy itself took the form of a two man show where my comedy partner would tell a story while I would simply respond with in the affirmative until he said something goofy at which point my character would deliver a smack to his head while telling him off. This style of comedy is something that I think most people who experience Japanese media will recognise but many of whom would probably be unable to place a name on. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the form of Japanese comedy called “Manzai”.
In many ways, manzai resembles a Western double act with a straight man and a funny man, here referred to as tsukkomi and boke respectively. The most notable difference though is the interaction between the tsukkomi and the boke. The two hold a conversation, usually on a strange subject, and the boke tells jokes and a story while the tsukkomi follows along until the boke makes an error at which point the tsukkomi reprimands them both verbally and with a dope slap delivered via either their hand or a paper fan. The error in question is usually a misunderstanding based on wordplay or a revelation that paints the story in a less flattering light for the boke.
